Vos
The Vos are a barbaric human race from the cold mountains and forests of northeastern Cerilia. Background The Vos are a barbaric race from the cold mountains and forests of northeastern Cerilia. They are tall, thick-boned people with flat features, light eyes, and a sallow hue. Male warriors are fond of shaving their heads and wearing long, drooping mustaches. The Vos have a rigid code of face and honor that demands blood for even unintentional insults. Their leaders are war-chieftains known as tsarevos, advised by the priests of the grim Vos gods. Almost all Vos men are warriors and hunters any other profession is considered unmanly. Vos women are greatly limited in their freedom by custom, although a few women have succeeded as warriors or tsarevas. The Vos are by far the most brutal and misunderstood of the humans. They live in the area of Cerilia known to geographers as Vosgaard, but to its neighbors as the Land of Darkness, the Brutal Lands, or the Lands of Midnight Sun. It's populated heavily by humanoids and monsters. The gods of the Vos are harsh and evil, and the Vos themselves have a reputation for being nearly as cruel as the humanoids they hunt. Though all these things are true of the Vos, there's also something about them that most people don't take into account: The Vos live in the harshest part of Cerilia, surrounded by inhuman creatures. Though they once worshiped the god of the moon and magic, they've found little solace in his teachings. Small wonder, then, that they turned to gods more suited to their land, gods of cold and rage. The Vos rulers are priests of the Ice Lady and the Terror God. They earn the Vos their reputation, for they are the ones constantly warring on each other and those surrounding them. Those who are not priests rarely have power in Vosgaard, for one of the few threats the Vos leaders unite against is a leader whose visions don't come from the gods. Taken individually, the Vos are actually decent people. Though they don't believe in mercy, they understand compassion. While they're savage in battle, they have a firm code of honor. And while they hunt their enemies ruthlessly, their friends are their most treasured possessions. The other human races of Cerilia are inclined to view the Vos as evil barbarians, savages, and marauders, but this isn't an entirely accurate assessment. The Vos have their cities and kingdoms, and there are heroes of noble bearing among them. It's important to remember that by their own standards Vos warriors are acting with honor when they raid and pillage the lands of the Brecht or the Basarji. And while no one will ever accuse a Vos of subterfuge or subtlety, it's also true that a person always knows where he stands with a Vos warrior. The code of courage and violent tendencies of Vos warriors and rulers have made north-eastern Cerilia a battlefield for the settling of their differences and feuds. The Vos hold "weaker" cultures in contempt and view the other peoples of Cerilia as potential slaves or enemies, but they absolutely hate each other. Travelers in Vosgaard should go to great lengths to avoid associating themselves with any particular chieftain or baronet it's dangerous to take sides, even by placing oneself under a chieftain's protection. In a historical context, the Vos are most similar to the ancient Mongols or Huns. Vos technology is the least advanced of the human cultures and can be viewed as roughly equivalent to the technologies of the Dark Age cultures. There is no written version to the Vos language and only those that speak another language are literate. History The Vos are a human subgroup who inhabit Vosgaard. One of the original 5 tribes of Aduria the Vos followed Vorynn as their patron deity. Over time however the worship of the otherworldly mysterious Vorynn was supplanted amongst many of the Vos by the worship of Azrai, the Shadow. During the Flight from the Shadow the Vos loyal to Vorynn fled north into Cerilia by a variety of small ships leaving their increasingly corrupt brethren behind in Aduria. Because the Vos tribe fragmented, the Vos who emigrated to Cerilia were relatively few in number and unable to challenge the populous Basarji who had already settled in the south-east and the Masetian who had colonized the southern coast itself. as a result the Vos mostly settled along the north eastern coast of Cerilia, penetrating inland via the various rivers. Azrai was not so easily foiled however and many of his minions fled to Cerilia with the Vos of Ruornil to continue to spread his word. While in Aduria the Vos were corrupted by the Lost into beast-men, in Cerilia the corruption was more subtle with the minions of Azrai promoting physical strength over intellectual ability, and encouraging ferocity amongst the warriors. During the War of the Shadow most of the Vos turned to Azrai openly, and began raiding heavily into the lands of the Brecht and Basarji. As the northern Vos of Cerilia travelled south and west their brethren in Aduria, including legions of beast-men swarmed north intending to sweep across the entire continent. Before the Vos of Aduria could carry out their plan however they were forced to fight at the bottleneck of the land bridge between Aduria and Cerilia by the massed armies of Cerilia led by Haelyn and Roele. Unable to bring their superior numbers to bear the discipline of the Andu legions and Brecht marines were able to grind down the numbers of the Vos until the gods themselves were forced into the conflict at the mystical predations of the Lost. The battle was a disaster for the Vos people as the death of Azrai caused the mountain to explode, the land-bridge collapsing into the ocean just days after as the survivors fled to safety. Particularly brutally hit were the southern Vos who paused on the coast of aduria to regain their strength and choose leaders when a series of great tsunami's drowned vast numbers of warriors. The northern Vos meanwhile were immediately attacked by Roele and the legions of the Andu. Roele battled the Vos and beast-men until the entire nation, now called Anuire was free of them, and then invaded other lands to similarly cleanse them of the 'taint of the shadow'. In time the Anuirean Empire covered almost the entire continent forcing the Cerilian Vos from their lands into the unexplored icy north where icy winters and awnsheghlien forced the legions to halt their advance. Since the fall of the empire, the Vos have conquered the southern land of Kozlovny and the Brecht realm of Rzhlev. The Vos as a people are split between the torva, or 'true' Vos and the nona, or 'new' Vos. While both are seen as bloodthirsty barbarian savages by non-Vos the Nona generally consider that a warrior's strength is meant to support society and that other talents, such as mercantile ability, are also of value to society. the Torva tend to believe that society exists to serve the strong - and that those who slaughter those above them have proven their right to rule regardless of other abilities. Trivia/Notes (TBA) Credits *The entirety of this article comes directly from Birthright.net. The article can be viewed here, here and tidbits from here. *The artwork on this article is official and was created by Wizards of the Coast and/or their affiliates. Category:Races Category:Humanoids Category:Creatures